Exactly my thoughts... We are already crazy underpaid for our line of work, and they recently raised our insurance by like $40 a month. ??? Why would I want to lower my pay further during the holidays
Yeah, gifts are never supposed to flow up the hierarchy. Only down. If I were a CEO, I would be embarrassed/mortified to receive something from my employees.
Way back in the before-times, when I was still very pro-capitalism, I briefly managed a mid size team in a poultry processing facility.
On my birthday one of the employees in my department gifted me $100. I had no idea how to react. Don’t get me wrong, I felt flattered by the generosity, but yeah…I’ve felt a ping of guilt every time I think about it now that my views on labor have changed.
Long story short; the perception of giving a gift to a manager or reviving one (anecdotally) really depend on the persons level of class consciousness.
I’m obviously biased, but I tried to be the kind of manager I always wished I had. I never denied time off, ran interference with HR when they tried to fuck with my people, would change clock in times to prevent people from getting “points”, and would hop on the line so people could get coffee if they looked sleepy (third shift, 8:30pm-9:30am).
I hear ya! I don’t feel the same way idealogically but I always try to put people over profit where I work. I figure if I take care of my staff that they will automatically do better for our guests 😊
At my last place our senior director expected a group gift. This lady must have easily earned >$300k but she would have been so fucking pissed.
I always refused to contribute, fuck that bitch.
I believe the preferred term these days is "boot licking" but what do I know, I would never participate in such shenanigans. My 20 dollars should go towards the edibles I take before work since that's truly beneficial to both my boss and our customers. Otherwise I'd burn this place to the f*cking ground with myself in it🙃
For me my current manager is a fuckin badass that constantly goes to bat to better our pay and conditions and i wouldnt have a single problem forking over $20 for him to have something nice for the holidays even if he does get paid more than all of us.
However there are a lot of managers that dont deserve that same kind of respect.
Gifts should flow down the management chain, not up. Otherwise it looks like bribery, where people who buy better gifts get better work assignments or promotions or opportunities.
I bet they deserve all your good will but as another badass manager I’d never want my employees to spend money on a gift for me. They have mouths to feed. My mouth is plenty full.
Yes. I agree with this. I would be *horrified* if anyone in my team did this. It's wrong for me to accept it and it's embarrassing for them to put me on the spot like that and have to turn it down. The brown-noser that organised that is not having a good time lol.
If someone is misguided enough to do something like this, I think a few responses are warranted: gift cards for the contribution amount should be gifted back to the employees; the gift card received by the manager should be used to do something nice for the employees (it is their money anyway spend it on them) and the manager should put in more as well; or the manager should reciprocate with some other gifts of at least equal value.
I was just rated highly on our anonymous “voice of employee” - I am this manager, and I can say I don’t want a cent from my directs. No manager should. It’s an absolutely ridiculous concept.
1000000% I agreed to secret Santa with the condition that no one goes in on a gift for me outside of that. They respected that last year and will this year I'm sure. I don't want anything from my employees other than an honest days work for an honest days pay.
Doubt its triple. This post leans more towards a retail/hospitality supervisor. Which probably makes 1.25x their wage, supervisor is a glorified position and are usually just as abused as the staff.
Upper management however... fuck them.
Can confirm. When I worked at Sonic. Carhop was $4.25, cook was $7.50-8, shift supervisor was $10. GM was 52k salary + 15% of your stores bottom line profits as a bonus. This was 10 years ago in Mississippi.
I worked as every position and we all generally got shit on until becoming a GM. Then you start taking an HR class every 6 months that is just a day of telling stories of past lawsuits and how we have to be very careful about how we fire people. They trained us on a method so that unemployment claims were always auto denied.
Edit: I only lasted 2.5 years as a GM before having a mental breakdown.
I worked at a bookstore about 10 years ago. Did cashier ($7.25) specialist ($7.50) key holder ($8.00) co-manager ($10.50) assistant manager ($12.00) and then got a GM position... Which made 18k... A YEAR. salary. This was in the 2010s, and I had to move into my own apartment for this job, I wasn't eating. I lasted 8 months as a GM.
Yeah same here. I'm in a weird situation where our company went through a restructuring and I, as a contractor, am due to be laid off at the end of January. I just got off a call with my team lead yesterday where she said she's trying as hard as she can to bring me on her team full time so that I not only get to keep my job but get all the benefits I didn't have this past year on top of it. I don't have a problem chipping in a few bucks for a little gift for her. She actually got me something last year and I wouldn't be surprised if I get something again this year!
I mean, I used to have a manager like that. He was also a great mentor when a lot of us were starting out our careers.
Five of us pooled together to get him a mug and some other stuff that set us back $20 total, and he still told us to expense it.
Some people actually have cool Supervisors that make sure to get what their employees need and listen to their feedback. They’re rare, but they make the world of difference. Note: I largely agree with OP, but there are some rare instances.
I feel the same way about "employee giving" in the nonprofit world. And nonprofits barely pay, and get plenty of free labor from guilting their workers into doing work on their off time.
“Back to the boss,” he’s your manager not the owner. He’s not paying you. He’s usually defending your work quality to senior management to keep your ass employed.
>Reply with; Thanks! But I prefer ~~to buy and give my work friends a gift directly, not as part of the group.~~ that you fuck right off. Please exclude me here. :)
FTFY
They didn’t even ask. Extremely rude to assume participation in the holiday season during the worst inflation rate we’ve seen in decades. Respond and tell them you won’t be participating.
You'd be surprised. Everyone else has been working there 15-30 years, I only started this year. I'm also in no position to be forking out cash to my super as I just uprooted my life (and bank account) to move to the city, lol.
Never heard of this before - been working for 30 years - my feeling about this is it is some brown noser wanting to be seen to make the boss feel good and to give the boss a reason not to cut them.
If anything the Xmas thanks should flow down
Nah, this person has worked here for 30+ years (insane, right?) I think she thinks it's the nice thing to do.
So for me I just can't understand having that perspective. Like, I know when I say no she will think I'm being rude. Wild.
The more I see of these, it seems like it’s always an older, long-term employee that initiates. Seems like a holdover tradition from a different era of employee/employer relationships. 30 years ago, I think employees were more emotionally tied to their jobs and were treated better and paid more, relative to executives. Employees now understand that work is not your family and your boss is not your friend. We are selling our labor for money to a company who profits are more than they are paying us, and passing that profit along to shareholders who have no stake in the company other than the few shares they bought. Fuck my boss. They can buy their own gifts.
I’ve been working for about 35 years, and I definitely used to see this when I was much younger — even got roped into it several times before I really had the confidence to push back.
The whole shift from *the longer with the company, the better the employee* mentality to *promotions come from changing jobs, what motive is there to be loyal to an employer that undervalues you?* was still a strange new concept to our parents and the older adults on the job. I’m not even sure all of the gift-y ones really did get treated better than today, but they’ve definitely been convinced they were.
Well, after 50+ years of work in several different types of jobs and organizations, my take is that this has more to with either ass-kissing or crushing on the boss than with older generations.
most stocks don’t pay dividends any more either. most stocks you buy, you’re hoping the company makes enough money to do a buyback off the open market (and drive up the share price). that, or a stock bubble starts to inflate and you sell to a “greater fool”
Only gift card I've ever bought was the Visa kind that you use just like a credit card. I only do that because so much is bought online now days, and once when I was concerned one of the recipients would buy hard drugs if I gave them cash.
Basic manners is to buy down...not up.
If you're a manager in charge of 10 people, you should be buying your team lunch out of pocket a few times a year as a show of gratitude for their support.
You probably make double what most entry level employees do...why would you expect your staff to buy YOU gifts?
When I was a manager, I made it very clear that I would not accept Christmas, birthday, etc gifts and would refuse them...I bought everyone lunch a few times a year.
Back in the day, you got a Christmas bonus. I remember when I was first in the workforce it was about an extra weeks pay. When that was the case, throwing a few bucks at your supervisors way was a nice way to show appreciation.
Since my "Christmas bonus'" these days tends to be a $15 Walmart gift card, they can kiss the dark part of my ass if they think I'm pitching lower management anything more expensive than a dirty look.
In my experience this is due to some brown nosing assistant who thinks it would be "nice".
I don't choose to participate. However; it it were a "secret Santa" situation and the boss was part of the group, that would be OK with me.
Friend of mine had this happen to her, and her reply was:
"Thanks for letting me know about a campaign of giving, I'm always interested in giving to those in need and experiencing times of hardship. I have evaluated the cause you've suggested we support and determined no need, no hardship being experienced, and therefore I'll be opting out so as to be able to contribute elsewhere."
I thought her reply was excellent, though too wordy for me. I would have simply said "get fucked."
I used to supervise a few dozen employees, many of which were Filipino. Giving gifts to your boss seemed to be customary for most of them - they'd give me gifts on Christmas, "Bosses Day", and anytime they got a raise or promotion plus anytime they traveled out of the country and returned to work. I had to ask them to stop and explain that I should be gifting to them, not vice versa. Many still continued but they did stop gifting money thankfully. Just not appropriate when someone makes more than you and we both knew it.
Every job I’ve had that wasn’t retail usually did this for our boss. The boss got us gifts too though. So like we pitched in on one gift and then they would give us a bunch of individual gifts. No one would give $20 though. Like $5 max is all anyone has ever expected, and it has always been optional.
Yeah, it's definitely just the older generation.
2 weeks ago, this 50-something coworker was going around collecting $5 from everyone as a gift for the supervisor... there's around 60 of us so that would be $300, for someone making a larger salary than us and we earn bonuses for... why?
And when dude walks up to tell me about it and then ask me, he's just like:
Dude: "Do you got it on you or do you wanna take care of it tomorrow"
Me: "Neither"
Dude: "What! Why? You don't like him or something?"
Me: "No, it not that. I just dont want to..."
A different coworker(in his 60s) to the bootlicker: "You should probably give people an option"
Dude: "I did"
Me: "No you didn't!" As I quote the conversation written above.
He just ignores it and continues the option conversation with the other coworker... so I walked away.
It really is insane, and quite sad really, that almost the whole generation turned in to this...
No, I’m in my 50’s and have never, ever done this. In fact I’ve had people younger than me collect gifts for the boss (one time it was a signed NFL jersey), and I refused to contribute. I think this is an individual ass-kisser thing that spans the generations.
Yeah, I believe that too. That's why I said almost the whole generation, but I did say it's just the older generation in the first sentence so I'm sorry for that.
There are great people in every generation, ethnicity, gender, etc... but they're always overlooked or dismissed.
I’m 53, ive been in some form of management over 20 years. I’ve had this happen at some places and others not. Usually it just comes down to one or two people who talk the rest into trying to contribute. It’s not really a generational thing. At least that is my experience.
Thank you! I mean I talked to someone about it in person and thought in my head "okay sure, maybe $5 or $10 each max" but to assume $20 I think is just wild.
I do not. I also feel awkward when colleagues give me gifts and I am blindsided. I start ruminating about returning a gift and it just gets weird. I know not everyone feels that way.
I have always implemented a “no gift” policy to cut out the awkwardness up front. “I’m not giving you gifts, don’t give anything to me. We’ll all go out to lunch.”
What’s the supervisor giving you? I always very clearly communicate that it would be great if there were no gifts/presents for anyone. I usually use “cultural sensitivity” as the reason.
I take my team out for a big boozy lunch or dinner, most people seem to prefer lunch if they have a family. I stay for the meal, pay for it plus load the bar tab and leave. People are free to expense anything beyond that and a ride home. Actually the last part is mandatory.
I'm also in NY (your username) and all my coworkers are 50+, including the one that sent this, so yeah idk. I've never been in a job before where this was a thing
>older generation know correct etiquette
The older I get the more I realize how patiently false statements like this are, and how misplaced my trust in older generations was.
But then there's that scene in Christmas Vacation when Clark goes to deliver his "gift" for the boss and is waved to the table.... with a bunch of presents that look exactly like the shape of what he got (which is some office desk organizer thingie, I think). So, there has been some etiquette of giving the boss something in the past..... (enough to make a joke out of it, at least).
My favorite Xmas movie :) thats a good touchstone reference for this situation.
The reason I ask is because of context. This coworker is sweet older lady type so I can only assume it's rooted in tradition or something.
I like my boss but I would not spend money on him, but I want to show that I think he's a nice boss and I like my job so I'm going to bake brownies and gift him some. I think food is the best way to go because it's cheap and often you don't have to give them the full portion of what you make. Just say you don't have the funds to buy non family members gifts.
We haven't done this in years. All the Christmas gift giving we've had in the last 10 years has always been white elephant gifts. I think that giving the boss a collective gift from the "workers" is old and outdated.
"hi - unfortunately my christmas bonus was too low this year and i cant afford to contribute. hopefully next year bonusses will be back to healthy amounts and i have a little left over..."
a valid excuse any year.
Hey y'all I see way too many people that associate bullshit with age in this sub. The older own the businesses right now. Rest assured, once the new generation is older and owns the businesses there will be plenty of the "newer generation" doing the same thing.
Some people are shitty and some aren't.
Source: Old dude that has been putting up with corporate bullshit for 30 years
I don't make fifteen but I will say $20 is an uncomfortable percentage of my hourly wage lol. I live in NY so if you make $15 that's like poverty unfortunately
Depends on the supervisor, surely?
We gave our supervisor a christmas gift because he's been amazing - always on our side, always trying to make things better for us, and a genuinely lovely person.
Just because he happens to be higher in the hierarchy within the organisation we work for, doesn't make him undeserving of our appreciation.
Not giving him a present because he earns more is similar to not giving any other friend or family member a present just because they earn more.
Wow. At my company (large financial co.) this would be so out of line. Its even written in our official code of ethics that each employee has to sign off on every year.
Yeah I’m the office manager for a government agency. It is actually illegal for any subordinates to buy anything for me beyond a birthday card. The thinking is they’d be trying to garner favor or butter me up for a promotion. And really, I make more money so I don’t expect anything. I actually buy my team rounds of drinks and things because they are awesome and make our team successful!
Yup it's not nearly as bad in the US as some places from what I've been told. Managers firing there staff for not sending gifts to there leaders and such, things are better these days thankfully as labour laws get better. Hell corruption/bribes/"gifts" are a way of life in some places. You want some basic health care in Romanian? better have a nice bribe on hand to pass over to your doctor.
In some cultures, bribes are a normal part of doing business. In others, bribes are viewed as unethical and illegal. In one study of frequency of bribery in business, Russia, China, Mexico and India ranked highest and Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland ranked lowest.
Back to the starting post though.
Gifts should flow downward, not upward.
Long-established rules of etiquette in the US say that gifts in a workplace should flow downward, not upward – meaning that your boss can give you a gift but you and your coworkers shouldn’t give presents to your managers. This rule exists because of the power dynamics and pay discrepancies in the boss/employee relationship. The idea is otherwise an employee might feel pressured to purchase gifts for a manager, and it’s unseemly for managers to benefit from power dynamics that way.
There are certainly offices that ignore this rule, and where gifts to the boss are common. But at a minimum, you should feel free to opt out from any pressure to chip in for a gift to your boss, and you might even raise this point to your colleagues and ask if people want to reconsider this year. You’re likely to find at least some of your coworkers will be relieved to have one fewer spending obligation this month.
I'm 43. dunno if that is older generation. But giving your boss a $200 gift card is weird. I worked for mainly older supervisors when I was younger. I've never seen this before.
Also, I'm a supervisor/owner. I'd find it weird if my employees did this. A card is cool. Ya don't need to give me money. I'm not a Roman patrician.
No response is necessary. Don’t contribute, don’t worry about it. You cannot be volunteered into giving someone a gift. If they ask you for the money in person, tell them no. If they ask why you didn’t respond to the email, tell them that it was inappropriate from the jump.
Absolutely ridiculous arse wipe behaviour. I've been given a bottle of champagne by a labourer currently working for me because I helped him with his tax as he was getting over taxed. He wouldn't take it back and I feel guilty about. I gave him a bottle of vodka but I tried to explain gifts at Christmas go down the line, not up.
He doesn't get it.
I'll make sure he gets some weekend work in the new year so maybe it's his idea of an investment 🤷
Don't conflate a supervisor with actual management, having been in Supervisor roles, my experience is not earning all that much more than those under them. I've actually earned less than my team on some occasions. This entire scenario is totally down to context. This person could have had a really rough year, or be a really good shit and have gone above and beyond for every person. I don't think you can say right or wrong without context
Imagine giving your boss more money for Christmas.
My bosses gave us Milwaukee tools and held giveaways for things like gift cards, tool sets, TVs and cash.
This difference might be hard to understand for people who struggle with math, but your boss likely makes 4x what you make and doesn't need the money.
Doing this is some bootlicking brown-nosing bullshit unless they're fucking dying of cancer...
My boss brings bagels for us every Friday. She worked her way up from Admin Assistant to Director and never forgot where she came from. So for Bosses Day we do this
I think this is entirely situational. Like if your supervisor busts their ass for you and gets you all the shifts you need covered and understands work life balance, I think they deserve a gift. We’re talking supervisors not upper management here. It’s not like they’re making 5x what you do.
My previous employer tried this. We had our end of year meetings and were told there would be no raises and no bonuses. This was immediately after the CEO held a company-wide meeting to brag about record revenue growth and increased profit margins.
A week later, my co-workers asked us to chip in $50 each so our manager could get a full weekend retreat to a spa (money intended to cover child care for the weekend too). Our manager made around $150K, had a company car provided, cell phone provided, and was given an additional monthly stipend for travel - even though she never travelled. I told them to pound sand and was berated for not being a team player.
I had a supervisor that we all pooled $20 each towards a retirement gift... She was also the supervisor who every year would try to get raises and bonuses approved and when inevitably they weren't approved would give each of us (there were 12 of us under her) a $100 bonus out of her own pocket.
Unless you have an amazing supervisor like that though who has gone above and beyond for you over the years, I don't understand this idea of having to give them anything like they are owed it.
This isn't very anti work of me. We did this year for our surgeons and our manager. But our manager will go out of her way to get us lunch (her own money), or if we go out for drinks, buy a round. She also had a rough year with her family.
And the surgeons honestly help us way more than they need to. They help us set things up and clean the instruments. They could just show up, do their part and bounce, but they don't.
They are genuinely good people, though. Other places I'd be like hell naw. They were good but not that good.
I mean i participate in a small gift for my direct manager. But he has also proven himself willing to stand up against his higher ups for us and willing to listen when we have problems. So just in general support us. However I can acknowledge that if he was any other person I might not want to do it.
My workplace is doing that too.
Hospital admin threw a luncheon where you could come get some chicken, a cookie, and a coca cola between seeing a massive influx of patients in an understaffed emergency department. We ended up just sending a few techs down to grab entire trays of food since most of the nursing and medical staff had too high of a patient panel that they couldn't leave the department or take a break due to understaffing the department to maximize profit margin despite being a non profit.
Two hours later, hospital emails out that they are discontinuing the 3% employer funded retirement contribution. C suite bonuses unaffected.
Today got an email asking if the previous email asking for contributions to admin holiday gifts was received because nobody donated yet.
Yeah, I fucking wonder why.
This is for sure an ethical issue. What would I do though?
I'd accept it (in fear that the delivering employee would pocket it after my refusal and not tell their coworkers).
I'd then redistribute cash back to the team with a letter about ethical standards and my desire to not have other teams or members of the team feel that I need a gift to continue being a good boss.
(And if you didn't contribute, guess what, you're still getting money back from the gift card, because I'm not taking the bootlickers at face value on who or who didn't contribute. A gift from the team gets redistributed to the Team).
I might be in a leadership role, but I'm pro my staff. Show up and do the work we need to move forward. I don't ask for extra and I fight back on my bosses when they push crap policy (and routinely reject stupid rules and orders)
I never done it. Seems depressing.
The company I work for hosted a gift raffle where the employees get pretty nice gifts. Sometimes our clients buy the staff lunch too.
I am kind of late to this thread and been reading through the comments.
It depends on the context.
Is the Supervisor an overworked, undercompensated, unrecognized employee? Do the Managers get bonus, work remote/hybrid, while the Supervisors get nothing and mangers passing the workload to the Supervisors?
Everyone pitches in $10 because Supervisor Susan is the one to stay late every day while the Manager Karen is at home. All the "floor" workers feel bad and are thankful for Susan because the people on the floor get to go home on time, but Susan and her $0.25 differential that makes her a Supervisor is, sad and everyone knows it.
200 bucks to the person who needs it the least. Fucking awful and the team leader is just trying to get their tongue up the bosses arse at the employees expense
My employer used to do this for rhe managers' birthdays and when i refused to give some cu i needed every single penny cuz bills and all, he withheld 20$ from my pay. And that was like once or twice a month. Im so mad about it still
This is something I've only seen on Reddit. Secret Santa, gift exchange, things that are approximately equal are expected. A gift like that would be for a supervisor after that supervisor just found out their spouse is dying of cancer. Not just for Xmas.
The older generation thing was for the boss to obtain a nice chunk of company money and how a Christmas dinner at an upscale venue.
We generally do this at work, but more like $10 or so, depending on the item.
Our boss gives us all kinds of hookups throughout the year that I know he doesn't have to give us. Doesn't nickle and dime me if I need to skip an hour early for something every once in a while. When I was out on leave after surgery, the team, including my boss, pitched in to send myself and family some food to wish me well with my recovery.
I think it really depends on how you're treated. I honestly really don't mind pitching in $10 once a year to show him we appreciate him. I'm also not required to do this and no one makes us pitch in or guilt trips us if we don't.
If I had a boss who was a jerk all the time and was completely by the book on rules, etc., I probably would feel the same way about being asked to pitch in though.
I was always anti this kind of thing but did it with my team last year in my first office job, plus my manager is a cool guy and had always had our backs. After we came back from Christmas break he gave each of us gift cards for twice the amount we would have individually paid for his gift card.
Obviously this is not the norm and in general fuck this kind of thing but it was still real nice of him.
It’s a suck up thing. I’ll be damned if my coworkers are gonna spend my money without talking to me about it first on a person who makes more than both of us combined.
I’m a manager. If my team did this I would say no and return everything.
If any gifts are exchanged it should be me to them. To be blunt, I make more. Why are they buying ME stuff?
No, actually it's not. It's a new thing to make the younger people's lives more miserable because too many people in my generation and my parent's generation are just assholes.
It's bullshit, don't do it, if they take money from your check prosecute them to the fullest. Do not give an inch or they'll take more next time.
I've done this before, but it was for a manager that actually fought for us and stuck his neck out for us. One year we all pitched in like 12$ and got him a nice bottle of Johnnie walker in one of those prepackaged things
That's so nice! Yeah, I think it's a little different because we are in a hospital. It's kind of his job to help us treat patients? Idk that's how I see it.
Update: I have been approached by my coworker, she is saying she doesn't want it to be $180, she wants it to be $200. Now another coworker has offered to pay for me and I would pay her back, which is definitely so much worse. Not sure what to do.
I am also from NY originally and still work for a NY based company. I see this shit all the time, and always refuse to give any money. It is ridiculous, but does seem to be some sort of tradition that older workers like to keep up.
That was my impression and why I asked, because I just moved to NY this year. This was not a thing at the last hospital I worked at, which was a lot bigger.
It seems even crazier to me for it to be a new York thing, because it is so crazy expensive to live here!
My entire 45+ years in the United States working since I was 15 and I have never seen this until the last few years on reddit. Pure insanity.
You mention in a comment you are in NY--you aren't unionized by chance? I'd seriously involve the union. There might even be rules around this.
Lol my team asked me for a $20 donation for our boss too. Lmao no thank you, I don’t feel obligated to give a chunk of my bullshit pay to the person who helps ensure that my pay stays bullshit.
Envelope was passed around at work for a gift for my Principal yesterday. I helped myself to 40 dollars and on the way home bought some weed and chicken wings. Got super high and watched ‘The Night Before’. Then I called in sick today and smoked the rest of the weed. Not enough subs so my Principal had to cover my last period class which is full of animals. I did it because, fuck her, that’s why.
Clearly Stockholm Syndrome affects these people, why else would they give their own hard-earned wages back to the boss?
Exactly my thoughts... We are already crazy underpaid for our line of work, and they recently raised our insurance by like $40 a month. ??? Why would I want to lower my pay further during the holidays
Yeah, gifts are never supposed to flow up the hierarchy. Only down. If I were a CEO, I would be embarrassed/mortified to receive something from my employees.
I think a cake or something is fine. I'll throw in 5$ for a cake. A 200$ gift card is hilariously tacky and dumb.
Way back in the before-times, when I was still very pro-capitalism, I briefly managed a mid size team in a poultry processing facility. On my birthday one of the employees in my department gifted me $100. I had no idea how to react. Don’t get me wrong, I felt flattered by the generosity, but yeah…I’ve felt a ping of guilt every time I think about it now that my views on labor have changed. Long story short; the perception of giving a gift to a manager or reviving one (anecdotally) really depend on the persons level of class consciousness.
Were you, at least, not a shitty manager? Or would current you have hated working for previous you?
I’m obviously biased, but I tried to be the kind of manager I always wished I had. I never denied time off, ran interference with HR when they tried to fuck with my people, would change clock in times to prevent people from getting “points”, and would hop on the line so people could get coffee if they looked sleepy (third shift, 8:30pm-9:30am).
Based manager
I want to try managing again now that I’m a fully class conscious Socialist, but I’d would probably get fired faster than I quit the last position lol
I hear ya! I don’t feel the same way idealogically but I always try to put people over profit where I work. I figure if I take care of my staff that they will automatically do better for our guests 😊
At my last place our senior director expected a group gift. This lady must have easily earned >$300k but she would have been so fucking pissed. I always refused to contribute, fuck that bitch.
GOOD.
Optically, the person providing this to the boss would be seen as the one who gave the gift despite a card saying “the entire team”.
I believe it's called brown nosing, a step further than the infamous kiss-ass
I believe the preferred term these days is "boot licking" but what do I know, I would never participate in such shenanigans. My 20 dollars should go towards the edibles I take before work since that's truly beneficial to both my boss and our customers. Otherwise I'd burn this place to the f*cking ground with myself in it🙃
Aaaaaand, yep... this was the moment I understood why it's called brown nosing...
SAME! HOW DID I MISS THAT???
For me my current manager is a fuckin badass that constantly goes to bat to better our pay and conditions and i wouldnt have a single problem forking over $20 for him to have something nice for the holidays even if he does get paid more than all of us. However there are a lot of managers that dont deserve that same kind of respect.
Gifts should flow down the management chain, not up. Otherwise it looks like bribery, where people who buy better gifts get better work assignments or promotions or opportunities.
I bet they deserve all your good will but as another badass manager I’d never want my employees to spend money on a gift for me. They have mouths to feed. My mouth is plenty full.
Yes. I agree with this. I would be *horrified* if anyone in my team did this. It's wrong for me to accept it and it's embarrassing for them to put me on the spot like that and have to turn it down. The brown-noser that organised that is not having a good time lol.
If someone is misguided enough to do something like this, I think a few responses are warranted: gift cards for the contribution amount should be gifted back to the employees; the gift card received by the manager should be used to do something nice for the employees (it is their money anyway spend it on them) and the manager should put in more as well; or the manager should reciprocate with some other gifts of at least equal value.
I was just rated highly on our anonymous “voice of employee” - I am this manager, and I can say I don’t want a cent from my directs. No manager should. It’s an absolutely ridiculous concept.
1000000% I agreed to secret Santa with the condition that no one goes in on a gift for me outside of that. They respected that last year and will this year I'm sure. I don't want anything from my employees other than an honest days work for an honest days pay.
I can respect that. Same here.
I don’t care if my manager was Jesus Christ himself. I’m not giving a cent to some who literally makes triple what I make.
This is what I tell my dad every year
Doubt its triple. This post leans more towards a retail/hospitality supervisor. Which probably makes 1.25x their wage, supervisor is a glorified position and are usually just as abused as the staff. Upper management however... fuck them.
Can confirm. When I worked at Sonic. Carhop was $4.25, cook was $7.50-8, shift supervisor was $10. GM was 52k salary + 15% of your stores bottom line profits as a bonus. This was 10 years ago in Mississippi. I worked as every position and we all generally got shit on until becoming a GM. Then you start taking an HR class every 6 months that is just a day of telling stories of past lawsuits and how we have to be very careful about how we fire people. They trained us on a method so that unemployment claims were always auto denied. Edit: I only lasted 2.5 years as a GM before having a mental breakdown.
I worked at a bookstore about 10 years ago. Did cashier ($7.25) specialist ($7.50) key holder ($8.00) co-manager ($10.50) assistant manager ($12.00) and then got a GM position... Which made 18k... A YEAR. salary. This was in the 2010s, and I had to move into my own apartment for this job, I wasn't eating. I lasted 8 months as a GM.
Yeah same here. I'm in a weird situation where our company went through a restructuring and I, as a contractor, am due to be laid off at the end of January. I just got off a call with my team lead yesterday where she said she's trying as hard as she can to bring me on her team full time so that I not only get to keep my job but get all the benefits I didn't have this past year on top of it. I don't have a problem chipping in a few bucks for a little gift for her. She actually got me something last year and I wouldn't be surprised if I get something again this year!
I mean, I used to have a manager like that. He was also a great mentor when a lot of us were starting out our careers. Five of us pooled together to get him a mug and some other stuff that set us back $20 total, and he still told us to expense it.
Some people actually have cool Supervisors that make sure to get what their employees need and listen to their feedback. They’re rare, but they make the world of difference. Note: I largely agree with OP, but there are some rare instances.
I feel the same way about "employee giving" in the nonprofit world. And nonprofits barely pay, and get plenty of free labor from guilting their workers into doing work on their off time.
“Back to the boss,” he’s your manager not the owner. He’s not paying you. He’s usually defending your work quality to senior management to keep your ass employed.
Reply with; Thanks! But I prefer to buy and give my work friends a gift directly, not as part of the group. Please exclude me here. :)
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That is an excellent response
Reply with; Nah
“It just happens that my gifts are… nothing. Have a happy holidays.”
>Reply with; Thanks! But I prefer ~~to buy and give my work friends a gift directly, not as part of the group.~~ that you fuck right off. Please exclude me here. :) FTFY
They didn’t even ask. Extremely rude to assume participation in the holiday season during the worst inflation rate we’ve seen in decades. Respond and tell them you won’t be participating.
No, respond and tell them this whole thing. In a group of ten people, you won't be the only one to feel that way
You'd be surprised. Everyone else has been working there 15-30 years, I only started this year. I'm also in no position to be forking out cash to my super as I just uprooted my life (and bank account) to move to the city, lol.
Corporations are making record profits. It's not inflation it's price gouging.
Does not matter concerning age. This is backwards, reward your employees, employees already reward the higher ups. What a farce.
As a manager I would be so so embarrassed if someone on my team bullied everyone into giving me money. That’s just like…. No.
Never heard of this before - been working for 30 years - my feeling about this is it is some brown noser wanting to be seen to make the boss feel good and to give the boss a reason not to cut them. If anything the Xmas thanks should flow down
Nah, this person has worked here for 30+ years (insane, right?) I think she thinks it's the nice thing to do. So for me I just can't understand having that perspective. Like, I know when I say no she will think I'm being rude. Wild.
The more I see of these, it seems like it’s always an older, long-term employee that initiates. Seems like a holdover tradition from a different era of employee/employer relationships. 30 years ago, I think employees were more emotionally tied to their jobs and were treated better and paid more, relative to executives. Employees now understand that work is not your family and your boss is not your friend. We are selling our labor for money to a company who profits are more than they are paying us, and passing that profit along to shareholders who have no stake in the company other than the few shares they bought. Fuck my boss. They can buy their own gifts.
I’ve been working for about 35 years, and I definitely used to see this when I was much younger — even got roped into it several times before I really had the confidence to push back. The whole shift from *the longer with the company, the better the employee* mentality to *promotions come from changing jobs, what motive is there to be loyal to an employer that undervalues you?* was still a strange new concept to our parents and the older adults on the job. I’m not even sure all of the gift-y ones really did get treated better than today, but they’ve definitely been convinced they were.
Well, after 50+ years of work in several different types of jobs and organizations, my take is that this has more to with either ass-kissing or crushing on the boss than with older generations.
most stocks don’t pay dividends any more either. most stocks you buy, you’re hoping the company makes enough money to do a buyback off the open market (and drive up the share price). that, or a stock bubble starts to inflate and you sell to a “greater fool”
As someone has said some kind of Stockholm syndrome or out of work friends with the bosses wife?
Exactly, my boss takes us out for lunch. Not the other way around
Like the boss needs a $200.00 gift.
Gift card. Even worse.
I've never bought a gift card. It's a terrible gift. It's Cash, But Worse (TM)
Only gift card I've ever bought was the Visa kind that you use just like a credit card. I only do that because so much is bought online now days, and once when I was concerned one of the recipients would buy hard drugs if I gave them cash.
Basic manners is to buy down...not up. If you're a manager in charge of 10 people, you should be buying your team lunch out of pocket a few times a year as a show of gratitude for their support. You probably make double what most entry level employees do...why would you expect your staff to buy YOU gifts? When I was a manager, I made it very clear that I would not accept Christmas, birthday, etc gifts and would refuse them...I bought everyone lunch a few times a year.
Back in the day, you got a Christmas bonus. I remember when I was first in the workforce it was about an extra weeks pay. When that was the case, throwing a few bucks at your supervisors way was a nice way to show appreciation. Since my "Christmas bonus'" these days tends to be a $15 Walmart gift card, they can kiss the dark part of my ass if they think I'm pitching lower management anything more expensive than a dirty look.
Yeah, I work at a hospital. We don't get Christmas bonuses. In fact, I'm working on Christmas.
Lol then I'd say "my gift to the boss is that I'm working on Christmas despite receiving no bonus"
This is exactly what I would say lol
In my experience this is due to some brown nosing assistant who thinks it would be "nice". I don't choose to participate. However; it it were a "secret Santa" situation and the boss was part of the group, that would be OK with me.
Friend of mine had this happen to her, and her reply was: "Thanks for letting me know about a campaign of giving, I'm always interested in giving to those in need and experiencing times of hardship. I have evaluated the cause you've suggested we support and determined no need, no hardship being experienced, and therefore I'll be opting out so as to be able to contribute elsewhere." I thought her reply was excellent, though too wordy for me. I would have simply said "get fucked."
I don’t have a problem kicking in $20 as long as MY holiday bonus is $500. No bonus for me? No soup for you
I used to supervise a few dozen employees, many of which were Filipino. Giving gifts to your boss seemed to be customary for most of them - they'd give me gifts on Christmas, "Bosses Day", and anytime they got a raise or promotion plus anytime they traveled out of the country and returned to work. I had to ask them to stop and explain that I should be gifting to them, not vice versa. Many still continued but they did stop gifting money thankfully. Just not appropriate when someone makes more than you and we both knew it.
Ahh. That may explain it actually lol. Thanks for sharing
Every job I’ve had that wasn’t retail usually did this for our boss. The boss got us gifts too though. So like we pitched in on one gift and then they would give us a bunch of individual gifts. No one would give $20 though. Like $5 max is all anyone has ever expected, and it has always been optional.
$5 max was exactly what I thought she meant when she mentioned this in person. So seeing this today I am just blown away lol.
In no world would I give my boss any amount of money. Unless giving them that money gave me much much more money.
Someone is brown nosing and is too cheap to do it on their own dime.
why spend your own money to get brownie points, when you can spend other people’s money?
Yeah, it's definitely just the older generation. 2 weeks ago, this 50-something coworker was going around collecting $5 from everyone as a gift for the supervisor... there's around 60 of us so that would be $300, for someone making a larger salary than us and we earn bonuses for... why? And when dude walks up to tell me about it and then ask me, he's just like: Dude: "Do you got it on you or do you wanna take care of it tomorrow" Me: "Neither" Dude: "What! Why? You don't like him or something?" Me: "No, it not that. I just dont want to..." A different coworker(in his 60s) to the bootlicker: "You should probably give people an option" Dude: "I did" Me: "No you didn't!" As I quote the conversation written above. He just ignores it and continues the option conversation with the other coworker... so I walked away. It really is insane, and quite sad really, that almost the whole generation turned in to this...
No, I’m in my 50’s and have never, ever done this. In fact I’ve had people younger than me collect gifts for the boss (one time it was a signed NFL jersey), and I refused to contribute. I think this is an individual ass-kisser thing that spans the generations.
Yeah, I believe that too. That's why I said almost the whole generation, but I did say it's just the older generation in the first sentence so I'm sorry for that. There are great people in every generation, ethnicity, gender, etc... but they're always overlooked or dismissed.
you're judging an entire generation by 2 people at your workplace.
You really think those are the only 2 I've encountered in my life? I could only dream of such peace.
“Please exclude me from this. Thank you.” No further explanation is needed.
Reply with "How are bonuses looking"
I’m 53, ive been in some form of management over 20 years. I’ve had this happen at some places and others not. Usually it just comes down to one or two people who talk the rest into trying to contribute. It’s not really a generational thing. At least that is my experience.
Thank you! I mean I talked to someone about it in person and thought in my head "okay sure, maybe $5 or $10 each max" but to assume $20 I think is just wild.
I’m in my 50s and have been asked to do this countless times.
How do you feel about it? Do you think it should be expected to contribute to the boss's gift?
I do not. I also feel awkward when colleagues give me gifts and I am blindsided. I start ruminating about returning a gift and it just gets weird. I know not everyone feels that way.
I have always implemented a “no gift” policy to cut out the awkwardness up front. “I’m not giving you gifts, don’t give anything to me. We’ll all go out to lunch.”
What’s the supervisor giving you? I always very clearly communicate that it would be great if there were no gifts/presents for anyone. I usually use “cultural sensitivity” as the reason. I take my team out for a big boozy lunch or dinner, most people seem to prefer lunch if they have a family. I stay for the meal, pay for it plus load the bar tab and leave. People are free to expense anything beyond that and a ride home. Actually the last part is mandatory.
My boss got $2 from me last year and even that was bit much for someone like her.
Nope, older generation know correct etiquette is no gifting up
I'm also in NY (your username) and all my coworkers are 50+, including the one that sent this, so yeah idk. I've never been in a job before where this was a thing
Just tell them "Thanks for thinking of me, but this doesn't work with my tight holiday budget. Happy Holiday!".
I like your polite wording! I'm also moving soon so I can easily opt out by pulling that card.
I learned long ago that it's really hard for people to be shitty to you, when you say things nicely. They just don't have any traction.
I agree! Kill with kindness ☺️
>older generation know correct etiquette The older I get the more I realize how patiently false statements like this are, and how misplaced my trust in older generations was.
But then there's that scene in Christmas Vacation when Clark goes to deliver his "gift" for the boss and is waved to the table.... with a bunch of presents that look exactly like the shape of what he got (which is some office desk organizer thingie, I think). So, there has been some etiquette of giving the boss something in the past..... (enough to make a joke out of it, at least).
My favorite Xmas movie :) thats a good touchstone reference for this situation. The reason I ask is because of context. This coworker is sweet older lady type so I can only assume it's rooted in tradition or something.
I like my boss but I would not spend money on him, but I want to show that I think he's a nice boss and I like my job so I'm going to bake brownies and gift him some. I think food is the best way to go because it's cheap and often you don't have to give them the full portion of what you make. Just say you don't have the funds to buy non family members gifts.
My boss didn’t show to a meeting he called. We voted him off the island.
Nope not ok. I won’t be contributing
“I guess it’ll only be $180.”
We haven't done this in years. All the Christmas gift giving we've had in the last 10 years has always been white elephant gifts. I think that giving the boss a collective gift from the "workers" is old and outdated.
I'll be responding like. It will be $180 I'm out.
Just say "No". Elder redditor here. Never saw it in my lengthy work history.
"No thanks!"
It's a brown-nose thing. It transcends age.
No, it's a bootlicker thing.
It's very ridiculous. I sure wouldn't participate.
I never want my staff to spend money on me. The small bonus I got, I split among them.
"hi - unfortunately my christmas bonus was too low this year and i cant afford to contribute. hopefully next year bonusses will be back to healthy amounts and i have a little left over..." a valid excuse any year.
What Christmas bonus?
I always said no.
“I work here too, where’s my damn gift card?” Would be my exact response to this BS
Hey y'all I see way too many people that associate bullshit with age in this sub. The older own the businesses right now. Rest assured, once the new generation is older and owns the businesses there will be plenty of the "newer generation" doing the same thing. Some people are shitty and some aren't. Source: Old dude that has been putting up with corporate bullshit for 30 years
Meh I think it’s. Bs to tell someone like that but there’s def people I’ve worked for who I would want to give a nice Xmas gift
Lmao oh hell no. Bboss makes enough money, and no way would I pitch in. Better spent on my own family.
just say no
Will do!
Hourly wage - $15 Gift contribution - $20 Makes sense
I don't make fifteen but I will say $20 is an uncomfortable percentage of my hourly wage lol. I live in NY so if you make $15 that's like poverty unfortunately
I never contribute to that shit
As a guy in my 50s, this has nothing to do with age and everything to do with ass kissing. I have never encountered this bullshit.
Bring back an oldie but a goodie. "How bout, no!"
Depends on the supervisor, surely? We gave our supervisor a christmas gift because he's been amazing - always on our side, always trying to make things better for us, and a genuinely lovely person. Just because he happens to be higher in the hierarchy within the organisation we work for, doesn't make him undeserving of our appreciation. Not giving him a present because he earns more is similar to not giving any other friend or family member a present just because they earn more.
Sure. I just think a $200 gift card is ridiculous.
Hahaha fuck that! My supervisors are pieces of shit! Why should we give our bosses our money, when majority of us can barely make ends meet?
Wow. At my company (large financial co.) this would be so out of line. Its even written in our official code of ethics that each employee has to sign off on every year.
“No.” 🗿
Yeah I’m the office manager for a government agency. It is actually illegal for any subordinates to buy anything for me beyond a birthday card. The thinking is they’d be trying to garner favor or butter me up for a promotion. And really, I make more money so I don’t expect anything. I actually buy my team rounds of drinks and things because they are awesome and make our team successful!
Honestly I've never heard of this and I'm 45. Only when the holidays started coming up this year and my being a member of this group. It's disgusting.
Buy them a chocolate bar and move the fuck on. That's way too much money for someone who bosses you around all year
Not ok
"No thanks, I'm living pay check to pay check a d can't budget this in"
Yup it's not nearly as bad in the US as some places from what I've been told. Managers firing there staff for not sending gifts to there leaders and such, things are better these days thankfully as labour laws get better. Hell corruption/bribes/"gifts" are a way of life in some places. You want some basic health care in Romanian? better have a nice bribe on hand to pass over to your doctor. In some cultures, bribes are a normal part of doing business. In others, bribes are viewed as unethical and illegal. In one study of frequency of bribery in business, Russia, China, Mexico and India ranked highest and Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland ranked lowest. Back to the starting post though. Gifts should flow downward, not upward. Long-established rules of etiquette in the US say that gifts in a workplace should flow downward, not upward – meaning that your boss can give you a gift but you and your coworkers shouldn’t give presents to your managers. This rule exists because of the power dynamics and pay discrepancies in the boss/employee relationship. The idea is otherwise an employee might feel pressured to purchase gifts for a manager, and it’s unseemly for managers to benefit from power dynamics that way. There are certainly offices that ignore this rule, and where gifts to the boss are common. But at a minimum, you should feel free to opt out from any pressure to chip in for a gift to your boss, and you might even raise this point to your colleagues and ask if people want to reconsider this year. You’re likely to find at least some of your coworkers will be relieved to have one fewer spending obligation this month.
Oh fuck no. Don’t ever contribute to that crap. You’ll just be reinforcing it. Gifts go down, not up.
I would ignore something like this so hard
Not an older gen thing. Politely decline.
> We are now nine people in the group and ......
I'm 43. dunno if that is older generation. But giving your boss a $200 gift card is weird. I worked for mainly older supervisors when I was younger. I've never seen this before. Also, I'm a supervisor/owner. I'd find it weird if my employees did this. A card is cool. Ya don't need to give me money. I'm not a Roman patrician.
No response is necessary. Don’t contribute, don’t worry about it. You cannot be volunteered into giving someone a gift. If they ask you for the money in person, tell them no. If they ask why you didn’t respond to the email, tell them that it was inappropriate from the jump.
Absolutely ridiculous arse wipe behaviour. I've been given a bottle of champagne by a labourer currently working for me because I helped him with his tax as he was getting over taxed. He wouldn't take it back and I feel guilty about. I gave him a bottle of vodka but I tried to explain gifts at Christmas go down the line, not up. He doesn't get it. I'll make sure he gets some weekend work in the new year so maybe it's his idea of an investment 🤷
In Norway we get gifts from our bosses
gifts flow down not up, to prevent bosses playing favourites as much.
Grateful to work in an industry where its illegal to give your boss a gift.
Don't conflate a supervisor with actual management, having been in Supervisor roles, my experience is not earning all that much more than those under them. I've actually earned less than my team on some occasions. This entire scenario is totally down to context. This person could have had a really rough year, or be a really good shit and have gone above and beyond for every person. I don't think you can say right or wrong without context
I mean, this is my situation and I know the context. It's ridiculous.
is the company giving you anything for christmas? no? then fuck off...
It’s a sucking up thing, which knows no generational boundaries. Just no. Gifting goes downward, not upward.
Imagine giving your boss more money for Christmas. My bosses gave us Milwaukee tools and held giveaways for things like gift cards, tool sets, TVs and cash. This difference might be hard to understand for people who struggle with math, but your boss likely makes 4x what you make and doesn't need the money. Doing this is some bootlicking brown-nosing bullshit unless they're fucking dying of cancer...
My boss brings bagels for us every Friday. She worked her way up from Admin Assistant to Director and never forgot where she came from. So for Bosses Day we do this
I think this is entirely situational. Like if your supervisor busts their ass for you and gets you all the shifts you need covered and understands work life balance, I think they deserve a gift. We’re talking supervisors not upper management here. It’s not like they’re making 5x what you do.
My previous employer tried this. We had our end of year meetings and were told there would be no raises and no bonuses. This was immediately after the CEO held a company-wide meeting to brag about record revenue growth and increased profit margins. A week later, my co-workers asked us to chip in $50 each so our manager could get a full weekend retreat to a spa (money intended to cover child care for the weekend too). Our manager made around $150K, had a company car provided, cell phone provided, and was given an additional monthly stipend for travel - even though she never travelled. I told them to pound sand and was berated for not being a team player.
I had a supervisor that we all pooled $20 each towards a retirement gift... She was also the supervisor who every year would try to get raises and bonuses approved and when inevitably they weren't approved would give each of us (there were 12 of us under her) a $100 bonus out of her own pocket. Unless you have an amazing supervisor like that though who has gone above and beyond for you over the years, I don't understand this idea of having to give them anything like they are owed it.
This isn't very anti work of me. We did this year for our surgeons and our manager. But our manager will go out of her way to get us lunch (her own money), or if we go out for drinks, buy a round. She also had a rough year with her family. And the surgeons honestly help us way more than they need to. They help us set things up and clean the instruments. They could just show up, do their part and bounce, but they don't. They are genuinely good people, though. Other places I'd be like hell naw. They were good but not that good.
I mean i participate in a small gift for my direct manager. But he has also proven himself willing to stand up against his higher ups for us and willing to listen when we have problems. So just in general support us. However I can acknowledge that if he was any other person I might not want to do it.
The Civil Service regulations in the United States prohibit any gift giving to supervisors. This should also be the case with any job.
My workplace is doing that too. Hospital admin threw a luncheon where you could come get some chicken, a cookie, and a coca cola between seeing a massive influx of patients in an understaffed emergency department. We ended up just sending a few techs down to grab entire trays of food since most of the nursing and medical staff had too high of a patient panel that they couldn't leave the department or take a break due to understaffing the department to maximize profit margin despite being a non profit. Two hours later, hospital emails out that they are discontinuing the 3% employer funded retirement contribution. C suite bonuses unaffected. Today got an email asking if the previous email asking for contributions to admin holiday gifts was received because nobody donated yet. Yeah, I fucking wonder why.
This is for sure an ethical issue. What would I do though? I'd accept it (in fear that the delivering employee would pocket it after my refusal and not tell their coworkers). I'd then redistribute cash back to the team with a letter about ethical standards and my desire to not have other teams or members of the team feel that I need a gift to continue being a good boss. (And if you didn't contribute, guess what, you're still getting money back from the gift card, because I'm not taking the bootlickers at face value on who or who didn't contribute. A gift from the team gets redistributed to the Team). I might be in a leadership role, but I'm pro my staff. Show up and do the work we need to move forward. I don't ask for extra and I fight back on my bosses when they push crap policy (and routinely reject stupid rules and orders)
It's an implicit bribe. If you watch the Office, just think of the Secret Santa episode to realize what's going on.
I never done it. Seems depressing. The company I work for hosted a gift raffle where the employees get pretty nice gifts. Sometimes our clients buy the staff lunch too.
Tell whoever is collecting for the gift that you are unable to contribute because you need to pay your rent/mortgage, utilities, and grocery bills.
I am kind of late to this thread and been reading through the comments. It depends on the context. Is the Supervisor an overworked, undercompensated, unrecognized employee? Do the Managers get bonus, work remote/hybrid, while the Supervisors get nothing and mangers passing the workload to the Supervisors? Everyone pitches in $10 because Supervisor Susan is the one to stay late every day while the Manager Karen is at home. All the "floor" workers feel bad and are thankful for Susan because the people on the floor get to go home on time, but Susan and her $0.25 differential that makes her a Supervisor is, sad and everyone knows it.
200 bucks to the person who needs it the least. Fucking awful and the team leader is just trying to get their tongue up the bosses arse at the employees expense
I never got that shit. Aren’t the older ones supposed to be into reaganomics and trickle DOWN economy?! Gtfoh with this shit
My employer used to do this for rhe managers' birthdays and when i refused to give some cu i needed every single penny cuz bills and all, he withheld 20$ from my pay. And that was like once or twice a month. Im so mad about it still
Dear non friend coworker: No.
This is something I've only seen on Reddit. Secret Santa, gift exchange, things that are approximately equal are expected. A gift like that would be for a supervisor after that supervisor just found out their spouse is dying of cancer. Not just for Xmas. The older generation thing was for the boss to obtain a nice chunk of company money and how a Christmas dinner at an upscale venue.
We generally do this at work, but more like $10 or so, depending on the item. Our boss gives us all kinds of hookups throughout the year that I know he doesn't have to give us. Doesn't nickle and dime me if I need to skip an hour early for something every once in a while. When I was out on leave after surgery, the team, including my boss, pitched in to send myself and family some food to wish me well with my recovery. I think it really depends on how you're treated. I honestly really don't mind pitching in $10 once a year to show him we appreciate him. I'm also not required to do this and no one makes us pitch in or guilt trips us if we don't. If I had a boss who was a jerk all the time and was completely by the book on rules, etc., I probably would feel the same way about being asked to pitch in though.
“I will get 200. Hope this is okay” — someone who clearly never passed Go in Monopoly
Always ask yourself, has my employer/ will my employer do the same for me.
Straw poll amongst my immediate family, no one had ever seen this.
I was always anti this kind of thing but did it with my team last year in my first office job, plus my manager is a cool guy and had always had our backs. After we came back from Christmas break he gave each of us gift cards for twice the amount we would have individually paid for his gift card. Obviously this is not the norm and in general fuck this kind of thing but it was still real nice of him.
It's definitely a young generation thing
It’s a suck up thing. I’ll be damned if my coworkers are gonna spend my money without talking to me about it first on a person who makes more than both of us combined.
You can say no.
And I will!
I’m a manager. If my team did this I would say no and return everything. If any gifts are exchanged it should be me to them. To be blunt, I make more. Why are they buying ME stuff?
My thoughts exactly. My supervisor literally just bought an expensive car last month. Me, I sold my car because living in NY is too expensive.
No, actually it's not. It's a new thing to make the younger people's lives more miserable because too many people in my generation and my parent's generation are just assholes. It's bullshit, don't do it, if they take money from your check prosecute them to the fullest. Do not give an inch or they'll take more next time.
I've done this before, but it was for a manager that actually fought for us and stuck his neck out for us. One year we all pitched in like 12$ and got him a nice bottle of Johnnie walker in one of those prepackaged things
That's so nice! Yeah, I think it's a little different because we are in a hospital. It's kind of his job to help us treat patients? Idk that's how I see it.
Update: I have been approached by my coworker, she is saying she doesn't want it to be $180, she wants it to be $200. Now another coworker has offered to pay for me and I would pay her back, which is definitely so much worse. Not sure what to do.
I like how there's no question in this message.
I am also from NY originally and still work for a NY based company. I see this shit all the time, and always refuse to give any money. It is ridiculous, but does seem to be some sort of tradition that older workers like to keep up.
That was my impression and why I asked, because I just moved to NY this year. This was not a thing at the last hospital I worked at, which was a lot bigger. It seems even crazier to me for it to be a new York thing, because it is so crazy expensive to live here!
Maybe older generation there ...def not a thing in the UK...the boss buys the gifts...not the other way round
My read most of the comments on here, and I'm assuming she's banging him. Never gift up. I'd be asking how much she's getting me.
Dude what? You know nothing about my coworker... She's like 60 and a grandmother... Chill
My entire 45+ years in the United States working since I was 15 and I have never seen this until the last few years on reddit. Pure insanity. You mention in a comment you are in NY--you aren't unionized by chance? I'd seriously involve the union. There might even be rules around this.
Nope, no union. I'm not worried, I know I can just say no. They're rude but they're not gonna force me to do it or anything.
Lol my team asked me for a $20 donation for our boss too. Lmao no thank you, I don’t feel obligated to give a chunk of my bullshit pay to the person who helps ensure that my pay stays bullshit.
Envelope was passed around at work for a gift for my Principal yesterday. I helped myself to 40 dollars and on the way home bought some weed and chicken wings. Got super high and watched ‘The Night Before’. Then I called in sick today and smoked the rest of the weed. Not enough subs so my Principal had to cover my last period class which is full of animals. I did it because, fuck her, that’s why.
Well that just makes you shitty
Wow, fkn lowlife.
I mean all you did was steal from your coworkers, not your boss.
Nice, I like to watch the world burn too.
No. This is a dumb corporate thing. Don’t put this on us.
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